Author Notes: I love paella because it is a little more hearty and cozy than a lot of pasta dishes but just as versatile--you can pretty much fill the dish with whatever you have on hand. I came up with this recipe after a dinner party left me with a few lamb sausages, lots of spices and half a can of harissa I did not want to waste. - NWB —NWB

Food52 Review: The fun of paella is that it's a dish whose flavor you have to build, phase by phase, as you layer ingredients into the paella pan. You can see the dish darkening and intensifying as you move through the steps. In NWB's Moorish Paella you blend a spice mixture of caraway, smoked and sweet paprikas, and cumin, and add it a spoonful at a time so the heat and flavor magnify, and by the end you have a dish that reminds us in its burly spirit of jambalaya. - A&M —The Editors

Serves 4

4 bone-in skin on chicken thighs

4 small or two large links of Merguez sausage (chorizo is fine if you can't find the lamb sausage)

1/2 head of cauliflower cut into pieces

1teaspoon caraway, ground

1teaspoon smoked paprika

1teaspoon paprika

1/2teaspoon cumin

1tablespoon harissa

2cups Arborio (or other short grain) rice

8 ounces tomato sauce

3 cups chicken stock

Salt to taste

1 small onion, diced

1 garlic clove, diced

2tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup dry wine (I used a rose)

In the morning place the chicken thighs in a plastic bag or bowl with a generous amount of salt to brine in fridge all day or at least 1 hour. Mix ground spices together in bowl with pinch of salt.

Cut sausage into discs and brown on each side in pan. You can leave them in links to brown as well, I prefer to cut them before cooking. Remove sausage onto paper towel lined plate and let cool. Leave fat in pan. Turn off heat if you need a few minutes to prepare next step.

Remove chicken from refrigerator and pat dry. Use the sausage fat and add olive oil if you need more. Over medium-high heat brown chicken skin side down for 3-5 minutes or until rich brown, turn over and brown for 2 more minutes. Remove chicken to plate with sausage.

Add olive oil as needed and onion to pan and cook about 3 minutes. Add dash of salt and a spoonful of the spice mixture. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add cauliflower and cook for 5 minutes. Add more of the spice mixture.

Add wine and scrape bottom of pan for any bits. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add sausage and harissa and stir until harissa is well incorporated. Add tomato puree and cook for 5 minutes. Add more spice mixture.

Add rice and distribute evenly across the pan. Add chicken. Add chicken stock. Add the rest of the spice mixture and season with salt. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until rice is cooked through--I find this varies depending on the stove top--20-30 minutes. You can cover the pan if it is taking too long to cook. After it is done cooking let sit off the heat for 2-4 minutes. Serve.

This makes so much rice! A couple more chicken thighs and I'd definitely say it feeds 6. I really liked the sound of the flavour combo so I almost doubled the amount of spice and tomatoes, reducing the amount of chicken stock accordingly. I always rinse my rice thoroughly as I can't stand a gluggy paella, so the texture turned out perfectly. Served with rocket on top and grilled corn and zucchini on the side for a well-balanced meal. Thanks for sharing this recipe :)

I would suggest, depending on party size, that you slightly reduce the rice, and thus chicken stock accordingly. I made this tonight, improvising with a tablespoon of 'Hot' chilli seasoning and a concoction of peppers + spice mixture from recipe. It was interesting, not bad actually, but it was just bleh. I just kept noticing how much rice there was, 2 large containers worth after dinner was put away. I think that my rice swelled, as I did notice a lot of stock in my pan initially, but it was perfectly cooked through. The dinner was made for two, intending on having leftovers, but now I think we may be able to stretch the rice into a side dish for steaks, or include steak chunks for lunches at work. Possibilities are endless; tastes like Spanish rice

i ended up just following the recipe, worked well though i was expecting a "deeper" flavour, i found the rice just tasted like the chicken stock and there was a spicy undertone - is this how its meant to be?

This is a brilliant variation, and kosher too. Can't wait to try it. To answer Musebe below, Ihave made paellas in large roasting pan. The importnat thing is that it be large and not deep so that the liquid concentrates rapidely and the rice doesn't get mushy. I use a similar technique in my kosher jamabalaya variation. So many jambalaya's are super mushy, but this one had firm rice like a good paella : http://alandivack.blogspot... . You can always treyf it up with seafood (don't overcook0 hama nd pork sausage if you want.

This is a weekly staple at home now! It's amazing, tonight we don't have chicken thighs so we're making it with tons of sausage and prawns... I even made my own Harissa to use, very excited to see how it turns out - I'm sure it'll be stunning!

i made this with my mom for a family dinner saturday night and it was a huge hit! ours turned out quite spicy, which my family loved, but might have been too much for someone with a different palate -- maybe it was the harissa we used? loved the addition of caraway!

we tripled the chicken and used skinless, boneless thighs, which was great with the leftover rice! i don't think the brining added much. next time, i will add even more cauliflower too.

Have made this 5 times since trying it as our first paella in November. After first time, poured off the fat after the sausages cooked, and more recently swapped out the sausage for turkey sausage, but otherwise, perfect in every way. Texture, flavor, portion, ease of cooking- an A+! Thank you!

I made this last night, with a couple of subs - instead of harissa I had to make do with hot pepper flakes, red wine instead of white, and diluted tomato paste instead of sauce, and it was fabulous. Next time I'd increase the garlic manyfold, and reduce smoked paprika by a tiny bit, 25% or so. Really great, comforting meal, and excellent left overs the next day.

Can chorizo be substituted for the lamb merguez in this? I'm not sure if the people who will be eating it actually like lamb and/or merguez. (Lamb is one of those "divider" foods, i've found: people either like it or, if they don't, they really don't like it.) If not chorizo, what would you use instead? Thanks so much. ;o)